There are about 5,000 different antibiotics produced by microorganisms which have already been reported in the art, some of which have been used widely for the therapeutic treatments of carcinomas, tumors and other infections. Among metabolites of microorganisms belonging to the genus Streptomyces, actinomycin D, mitomycin C, bleomycin, daunomycin, adriamycin and acracinomycin are typical as those having been used as carcinostatic and antitumor agents.
Nevertheless, it has always been demanded still further to discover or produce new carcinostatic or antitumor substances having a unique carcinostatic or antitumor activity which is different in mechanism of function from known, conventional carcinostatic or antitumor antibiotics and having a low toxicity and thus being capable of using for the therapeutic treatment of carcinomas and malignant tumors of man.
Accordingly, a main object of this invention is to provide a new carcinostatic or antitumor antibiotic, Conagenin.
Another object of this invention is to provide a process for the production of Conagenin.
A further objection of this invention is to provide a pharmaceutical composition containing Conagenin as active ingredient.
A yet further object of this invention is to provide a method of inhibitingly treating carcinomas or malignant tumors of mammalian animals including man with Conagenin.
A still further object of this invention is to provide a new microorganism which can produce Conagenin.